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Watching T.V together as a family is a staple that goes back to when they were first introduced! With cable T.V, families gathered together every week anticipating a new episode to their favorite T.V show. They would eagerly sit there taking in every moment only getting up during the commercial breaks to grab a snack or quickly run to the restroom. It was a great family bonding time. You laughed together, cried together, experienced shock together, and created so many fond memories that you talk about years later even! Getting the family together was easy. Now, in the streaming service era, families have access to thousands of shows and movies at their fingertips. Families are able to watch what they want when they want, so the need to get together every week subsided. Everybody can watch whatever they want on their own time. When the family does get together, kids and even parents scroll through their phones distracted because you can simply rewind or watch the episode again. Here’s how you can make watching movies together as a family exciting again!
First things first, set boundaries. Make it special by getting rid of phones or other distractions. You simply can’t just tell your children to put their phones away though. You must do the same and lead by example. You can put all your cellphones on the coffee table faced down on silent before pressing play! Another boundary that you should set if you are starting a new T.V show is when everyone is allowed to watch it and how many episodes you are going to watch together. You want everyone to watch it together and not go ahead of the family. You also don’t want to come together and binge an entire series in one sitting. Come up with something that works best for the whole family!
The next thing that you need to do is come up with creative ways to make it fun! Yes, the show will probably be the main attention, but bringing in another aspect could bring some excitement to your next show/movie night. One thing that you can do is alternate snack duties and make it into a little friendly competition to see who can bring the best and creative snack! Have a different member of the family handle snacks each week and see who can come up with the best creation! Another thing that you can do is talk about the show after you’ve watched it. Don’t just watch the show and move on with your day. Take a few minutes and talk about what interested you, scared you, or made you laugh! Talk about the direction you see the show heading in or what you think is going to happen next episode. Whatever you do, don’t force it and get as creative as you want in order to make it special for you and your family.
Now that you have all of your plans in place for the next family Netflix night, it’s time for the most important part in picking out a show! You don’t want anything too graphic and explicit if you have young children, but you also don’t want anything too catered to children because you and your older children will lose interest pretty quickly. You know your children best so just trust your instincts!
